H.Res. 206 – Rule providing for consideration of H.R. 1363 - Department of Defense and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 (Rep. Rogers (KY) – Appropriations)(One Hour of Debate) The Rules committee has recommended a completely closed Rule, allowing for no amendments to the legislation. The Rule makes in order one motion to recommit, with instructions. The Rule provides for one hour of debate, equally divided between the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Appropriations. It also provides for martial law authority through Sunday, April 10, which allows Republicans to bring any Rule to the floor without the required layover of one legislative day.

The Rules committee rejected a common-sense amendment offered by the Ranking Member of the Appropriations committee, which would have provided a simple 1 week extension of funding for government operations with no controversial policy riders attached to it, and no additional cuts, so that there could be more time to negotiate without the immediate threat of a government shutdown. The Rules committee also did not allow several amendments relating to military policy in Libya and Afghanistan.

H.R. 1363 - Department of Defense and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 (Rep. Rogers (KY) – Appropriations)(One Hour of Debate) H.R. 1363 would fund the Department of Defense for the rest of the fiscal year 2011, while funding all other government agencies and programs for one more week. This legislation would cut all non-security discretionary spending by approximately $13 billion, while funding defense at approximately $7 billion above the current funding level. The aggregate cut of spending in this legislation is $6 billion.

The GOP Leadership is pushing forward with this ideological legislation despite ongoing negotiations to avoid a government shutdown. This bill does not help achieve a solution to funding government operations for the rest of this fiscal year. It has many large and dangerous cuts in one week of government funding, including $2 billion in cuts to investments in infrastructure (e.g. high speed rail) projects, key cuts to research programs, and large cuts to programs like WIC and LIHEAP. H.R. 1363 also includes controversial policy riders that do not belong in a continuing resolution, including a prohibition of DC funds to cover abortion in the District of Columbia.

This legislation is not a compromise solution. It has little chance of passing the Senate and being signed by the President, and shows that Republicans are not offering serious legislative proposals to keep the government operating for the remainder of the fiscal year. This bill will not help our economy, or the ongoing negotiations to keep the federal government running.

Complete Consideration of H.R. 910 – “Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011” (Rep. Upton – Energy and Commerce) (One Hour of Debate) H.R. 910 would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases to address climate change. H.R. 910 would also repeal EPA’s endangerment finding, which found that certain greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are a threat to public health and the environment. The legislation has nothing to do with taxes; despite the misleading title, the EPA has no authority to raise or lower taxes under current law, thus making it impossible to prevent the Administrator of the EPA from raising taxes. This identical language failed in the Senate yesterday.

Yesterday, the House completed consideration of all amendments. The House is expected to consider the Democratic motion to recommit, as well as final passage of H.R. 910 , today.

Possible Consideration of H.J.Res. 37 - Disapproving the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission with respect to regulating the Internet and broadband industry practice (Rep. Walden – Energy and Commerce) (One Hour of Debate) H.J.Res. 37 would disapprove of the Rule adopted by the FCC on December 21, 2010, which was put in place to restrict broadband service providers from discriminating against lawful content and blocking certain content in lawful network traffic. The FCC Rule also provides for disclosure of certain information (e.g. terms of service) among broadband providers.

H.J.Res. 37 uses the Congressional Review Act to disapprove of the Rule. The CRA also mandates expedited procedure in the Senate, and if enacted, would stop the FCC Rule from having any effect. H.J.Res. 37 would also stop the FCC from issuing any substantively similar rules in the future.

“My recommendation to my friends in the House is… it's highly unlikely many riders are going to get passed with a Democrat president and a Democrat Senate. So why don't you take the spending [cuts] and let's get on to the [2012] budget?”